Author's Notes.

Jill, Nope. Because Bass escaped AFTER the Tour was put together.

Begin Chapter.

"So what's the lineup?" Lan turned to Chaud as the Administrator returned to his seat next to the Netbattlers.

"Hold your gigabytes." The teen with bi-color hair leaned back in his chair. "As you'll find out in a moment, the first match is Dave and QuickMan-."

"Dave? He's competing?" The brunette interrupted, now that was news to him.

"Yes, he's done his time for taking over the dam's computer system and is a free man once again, his opponents will be Dex and GutsMan."

"Are you out of your mind?" Lan gasped at the thought of the slowpoke GutsMan battling against the overcharged QuickMan. "He's gonna get creamed!"

"If I remember correctly," Chaud stared up at the display board as the list of matches began appear on the screen, "I said the same thing about you in the N-1, and look what happened."

"If you say so." Lan shook his head and then noticed that Maylu hadn't entered the conversation, "Hey, are you O.K.?"

"Huh?" The redhead jumped slightly at the sound of Lan's voice.

"I asked if you were feeling alright."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Maylu turned to face the sound of his voice. "Just wondering why we're here. So what's the lineup?"

"Well," Lan studied the display board, "Uh, up first there's GutsMan and QuickMan, followed by two guys I've never heard of, PyroMan vs. CopterMan. And then... wow, Tory and IceMan against Chillski and ColdMan!"

"War of the blizzards." Maylu quipped in reply, something about this entire thing was bugging her, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Well, if she waited long enough it would come back to her.

"And it's time for the moment that you've all been waiting for!" Ribbita's voice flooded the arena, causing everyone to wonder just how she had landed yet another Tournament assignment. "Let the games begin! Up first we have the mighty Dex and GutsMan set against the speedy Dave and QuickMan! Our battlers are in position, so let's get this show started!"

"Right!" The overstuffed Dex jerkily yanked out his P.E.T. and slammed the wire into the gate, "Jack in, GutsMan! Power Up!"

"Are you ready QuickMan?" Dave also pulled out his Personal Terminal.

"I'm ready, this is going to be easy." The red and yellow Navi nodded.

With a blast of light the two Navi entered the arena and prepared to duke it out.

Battle Start!

"First move," Dex jammed a couple of chips into his terminal's gate. "Guts Hammer, Download!"

GutsMan hauled back his hand as it morphed into its huge hammer state, with a loud battle cry of 'Guts!' the Navi slammed it into the ground, which released a powerful earthquake that sped across the arena.

"You've got to be kidding me." QuickMan took off at full speed and tore his way across the battleground, easily sidestepping his opponent's attack.

"Oh yeah?" The bald kid grinned with anticipation as he readied four chips, "Remote Blasters, Download!"

"You loose!" The ape raised his arms above his head as four robotic blasters appeared in front of him, each one targeting his opponent. "Fire!"

Each cannon discharged its load, sending four powerful beams of energy through the air.

"This is just too easy." The red and yellow Navi announced as he watched the lasers close in on him. At the last possible moment he took a running jump, and sailed over the blasts. As the Remobits fired again he dodged and twisted his way through the obstacle course of plasma energy. And of course escaping without a scratch.

"Why doesn't Dex get it?" Lan spoke to himself; he'd faced QuickMan before and knew the guy's only major weakness... "QuickMan's too fast for those attacks!"

"Now it's my turn." The speedy Navi closed in on GutsMan and sent his arm forward through the air, trying to clip the larger Navi with the dagger-like fins on his glove. "Quick Slash!"

GutsMan didn't stand a chance against the faster Navi's one-two punch maneuver, and was struck repeatedly by the sharp fins before QuickMan actually attacked with his fist and knocked the large ape backwards.

"Don't give up!" Dex shouted to his Navi as he rifled through his folder, what did he have that could help? This folder was the one that he preferred because it contained his entire ensemble of virus and punch attacks... for the moment maybe this would work. "Guts Punch, Battle Chip in, Download!"

"GutsMan win now." The large Navi announced as his right fist grew to a much larger state, now all he had to do was slam it against a certain red, yellow, and very fast Net Navi...

"I've got to say." Dave spoke up for the first time; "You've got a lot of potential Dex, but you also have a long way to go. Quick Boomerang, Download!"

"Uh oh," GutsMan glanced around trying to figure out just where that annoying boomerang would come from. He didn't want to get clipped by it any time soon...

A slight 'hiss' sliced through the air, before the large ape turned around to see one very large yellow boomerang with his name on it. And it was coming in way too fast for his liking.

"JUMP!"

"Whoa!" The apelike Navi threw his oversized frame up as high as he could and just narrowly missed the projectile. Once clear of the blade had dropped back down to the ground and tried to find his opponent, completely forgetting about the Boomerang's special ability: it would keep targeting him until it was destroyed.

GutsMan 'oomphed' as he got clobbered from behind, subsequently he was thrown to the floor.

The boomerang curved around, getting ready to attack again, but this time GutsMan was ready, and when the boomerang came into range, he slammed his powered up fist against it, and shattered it into deletion.

Dex stared at his P.E.T.'s display in disbelief; he couldn't loose the first round of competition. He just couldn't! But what could he do? QuickMan was way too fast for GutsMan, and a whole lot smarter besides. And these chips were useless in this situation; there wasn't one in this folder that could work...

"Only seven minutes left." The bald kid glanced at the timer, the match was half over with, and if things didn't change soon they'd be dead meat... unless... it was corny move, but one that just might work. "Folder change!"

Dex discarded his old folder and snatched up his second one, this one contained his... miscellaneous chips, and ones that he didn't use that often, but if this worked it would become his new best friend.

"Area Steal!" The Op slotted the chip into his P.E.T.

"Guts!" GutsMan vanished in a puff of pixels, evading QuickMan and causing the speedy Navi to look around trying to find out where his adversary would appear.

"Stay alert, QuickMan." Dave searched his P.E.T.'s display, trying to locate the apelike Navi.

"Nothing will get by me." The Navi replied.

A split second later, GutsMan reappeared, standing as far away from QuickMan as he could, in a corner of the arena.

"I've got him!" QuickMan spun around and barreled across the arena straight towards his opponent, this guy was toast!

"Hey, Dave, question." Dex announced as he slapped a Grass Stage Chip into his P.E.T., causing all of the tiles in the battle area to grow long blades of foliage. The move aroused everyone's curiosity because GutsMan wasn't a plant Navi, so the Grass Stage wouldn't give him any benefits.

"What's that?"

"Didn't you once say that QuickMan was too fast for any weapon that you shoot at him?"

"I did." The Op nodded as his Navi closed in on GutsMan; one swipe of his fin was enough to log Dex's Navi out...

"That's all I needed to hear!" The chunky kid slammed two more chips into his terminal. "NOW!"

"Guts!" The giant Navi roared in reply, his opponent was rapidly closing in, and a split second later he was within five paces of him. "Wood Tower!"

"QuickMan!" Dave shouted as a tall woody tower burst out of the ground just in front of his Navi. There was no way he'd be able to stop in time! "Watch out for that-"

A loud thud echoed through the arena as QuickMan crashed headfirst into the tower, which because of the Grass Stage chip was now strong enough to take the impact and stay standing. As a result, QuickMan was stopped dead in his tracks.

"Tree." The black haired man finished weakly.

"Hurry! Hit him with these!" The bald kid shouted to his Navi, "Cyber Sword, Download! Variable Sword, Download!"

"You lose!" The large Navi slammed his newly gained Cyber Sword forward, and clipped QuickMan just as the speedy Navi regained his senses and tried to remove himself from the tower.

The red and yellow Navi dropped to the ground, and then looked up to see GutsMan standing over him, his Variable Sword raised and ready to plunge downward onto him.

"WHOA!" Dave yanked his wire out of the connection, logging QuickMan out of the Network just as the ape brought his blade down.

"Alright, we win!" Dex started to dance around the stage in excitement, for once in his life he had beaten someone!

"It was a pleasure, Dex." Dave tipped his ball-cap towards his former opponent, who was now gyrating around the stage. "Develop that skill and you'll make a fine Netbattler."

"And with that amazing victory, Dex moves on to the next round!" Ribbita shouted into her microphone. "In exactly fifteen minutes the next battle will begin, so don't miss out!"

"Wow." Lan remarked as he stood up; he didn't believe that it had been possible, but Dex had come back and done it after all.

"Where're you going?" Maylu turned and asked in Lan's general direction.

"How do you do that?" The brunette raised an eyebrow at his friend, "I mean, I know you can tell where we are by the sound of our voices, but how'd you know I was getting ready to leave?"

"I'm starting to enjoy having you two in the dark for a change." The redhead quipped, "I heard your chair give a loud squeak, so I knew that you had stood up."

"Hmm," Lan tested the theory by pressing down on his seat, sure enough it gave a minor groan of protest. "I never noticed."

"I'm impressed," Chaud shook his head in amazement, "You really aren't handicapped are you?"

"That's what I've been telling you." Maylu grinned, "Go ahead, Lan, if I know you then you're headed for the snack bar."

"Yep." The Op took his chance and escaped by dashing up the stairs, determined to at least grab a hot dog before this next match.

Unfortunately, he was a little too anxious, and as he tore up the steps he collided solidly with a tall, well built individual. Together, the two lost their balance and crashed to the ground, landing hard.

"Sorry." Lan gasped as he tried to pick himself up, who had he run into this time?

"I had hoped to run into you," A familiar voice commented from somewhere to Lan's left. "I just didn't expect it to be so literal."

Lan's eyes widened in surprise as he hurriedly got to his feet and spun around, he was right! Of all people he had crashed straight into:

"Laika!"

End Chapter.

Next: Frostbite!